Major obstructions for the preparation of plant chromosomes
for both cytological research and flow cytometric
sorting are the incomplete synchronisation of the biological
material, resulting in a low frequency of mitotic
cells, and the presence of a cell wall that has to be removed
to release chromosomes. Furthermore, metaphase
chromosomes tend to be sticky after treatment with a
spindle toxin and current buffers do not stabilise plant
chromosome suspensions efficiently for long-term storage
and analysis.